Stitches
by KatsyKat
Summary: What will Sasuke do when Sakura’s injured, Kakshi’s missing, and Naruto’s no help? Are stitches enough to heal a wound or is there something he’s missing? slight SasuSaku  No spoilers – Team 7 friendship D ENJOY!


Stitches

By SuziKat aka KatsyKat

What will Sasuke do when Sakura's injured, Kakshi's missing, and Naruto's no help? Are stitches enough to heal a wound or is there something he's missing? No spoilers – Team 7 teamwork fic.

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Sasuke HATED treating wounds.

It was deeper than the annoying fact that receiving a wound meant you'd made a mistake. You hadn't been adequately aware of your surrounds, moved quick enough, planned well enough, or you had a stupid reckless teammate... it all amounted to the same thing.

Even after all their training, he STILL wasn't strong enough to prevent a mission failure.

However, that disappointment wasn't what bothered him about treating this particular wound.

Looking down at his unconscious teammate, her pink hair fanned across the ground, Sasuke scowled at her too-pale complexion and her shallow breathing. Turning her gently on her side, he located the deep gash, from where she had recklessly pulled out the enemies' shurinken, thrown it aside and continued to fight. Doing so allowed the blood to pour freely from the wound, and moments later she'd fallen to the ground in a dead faint.

Sasuke took one look around the trees for their sensei, who had gone to set traps against the retreating enemy ninjas. Finding no sign of the copy ninja, and thus no chance for someone else to take over this gruesome task, Sasuke returned to the task at hand.

Pulling out a kunai, he hesitated for only a second, before using the tool to cut Sakura's dress open further so he could get a better look at the injury. Just above her hip, a 5 inch gash, gaped mockingly open. The blood pouring from it made it hard to tell what had been hit.

When Sakura was hurt this badly – it meant things had gone more than terribly wrong for Team 7. She was the one who patched the more reckless of her teammates up. She was the member that they couldn't help but protect. Not, as he knew she thought, because she needed the protection, but because they did not do well seeing her injured. Their camaraderie suffered when she wasn't around to balance it.

Sasuke quickly looked up to find his silent-for-once blonde teammate out of the corner of his eye. Naruto sat, leaning against a group of trees trying to wrap his own still-bleeding injuries. It seemed he was too exhausted from the fight to even be aware of Sakura's condition.

Knowing the blonde would be more a hindrance than a help, Sasuke continued without calling for Naruto's attention.

Sasuke squeezed the flesh around the wound making it bleed more to help flush out poison or dirt, while he pulled out his canteen. Pouring water over it to clean it he finally got a look at the depth of the inch-plus deep slash.

After cleaning it he pinched it together tightly to stop the bleeding. Seconds later, Sakura awoke with a hiss and tried to bring her arms up offensively.

Saskue smirked in approval of her reflexes, even as he cursed her for making him spill the rest of his water in order to counter her and prevent her from moving away from him.

"Sakura." He called her name too loudly and saw her wince. Cursing himself, she lowered his voice. "You're injured – lie still."

Sakura's eyelashes fluttered open and Sasuke was appalled to see her unfocused eyes desperately trying to take in her surroundings. Panic overcame her expression, as her pupils continued to fluctuate; and she began to thrash in fear.

Sasuke threw his body on top of hers to stop her from injuring herself, while his right hand continued to clench the gash together to slow down the bleeding. He was surprised that with one hand he was having a hard time keeping her restrained, but he knew that she couldn't lose any more blood.

Damnit!! He looked to Naruto for help, and found his blonde teammate already moving quickly on his unsteady feet to them.

Without saying anything, Naruto dropped to the ground and held down Sakura's legs; while Sasuke moved up to her face and tried to reason with her.

Placing his face mere inches from hers, he spoke almost tenderly.

"Sakura, it's me, Sasuke. You're going to be alright, but you have to calm down." He studied her face, as her green eyes finally focused on his own and the panic was replaced by confusion.

"Sas...su-ke?" she called weakly, as she stilled.

"Yes, it's me." He said. "Do you remember what happened?" Now that she was awake, he wanted to make sure she wasn't suffering from anything more serious than blood loss. He also remembered that you needed to keep someone who had been unconscious, awake.

He watched Sakura's eyes flutter, as she tried to remember. Vaguely, Sasuke noted that Naruto had let go of his grip on Sakura's legs and was cleaning up the blood that had run in rivulets down her her pale legs. It didn't seem to bother her, and it would be impossible for her to bend over and clean them herself, so Sasuke didn't say anything as he listened to Sakura piece together the surprise attack.

"The sound nin... You were... distracted. H-he was behind you and I... I wasn't going to make it..." She started crying. "I tried to deflect the..." tears gathered in her eyes and she hiccupped back a sob, wincing at the movement.

"Shh..." Sasuke reached up and cupped Sakura's face rubbing his thumb across her cheek. "It's alright, you made it. I'm fine and you're going to be fine."

Either the contact or the news seemed to calm her, and for that he was grateful. Looking up at Naruto – they shared a moment of eye contact and complete unification in their cause.

Saskue looked back down at Sakura. "You're going to need stitches." He told her, ignoring her wince.

She closed her eyes and became even paler. "How bad is it?"

Sasuke frowned. "Not the worst you've had, but it'll take quite a few."

Sakura nodded. "I'm sleepy. That's not a good sign." She said.

Sasuke smiled, leave it to Sakura to diagnose herself and give him advise on her medical treatment in her state. With strength like that, how could she consider herself weak?

"You know you have to stay awake." Sasuke stated before looking up. "Naruto, hold this." He said motioning to his hand that was holding the gash closed.

Naruto gulped and nodded, clearly sobered by the severity of Sakura's injury. He was only now beginning to understand that his normal rate of healing was much different from that of a normal person. Moving his hand over Sasuke's he winced as more blood gushed out when they switched positions.

Once Sasuke's hand was free he reached into his pack and pulled out antiseptic, thread and a needle. Without warning, he poured the antiseptic over the wound which also washed away some the dried blood on Sakura's dress.

Sakura cried out quickly reaching her hand up to stifle her sob.

Good. Sasuke thought. She's aware enough to understand there could be enemies nearby.

"Sasuke..." Sakura pleaded bravely. "I need... something to bite down on."

Sasuke nodded and stood. Pinning Naruto with a glare and pointing to several spots in the trees, he instructed his teammate to watch for potential enemies.

Naruto nodded and Sasuke jumped up to find a suitable branch. Stripping the bark off the stick took longer than he thought, and he cursed himself for taking so long. Still it wouldn't do any good if Sakura couldn't bite down because it gave her a splinter.

When he returned to his teammates, Naruto was doing a great job of talking animatedly to Sakura, holding her attention and preventing her from sleeping. Sasuke was glad. He'd forgotten to tell Naruto to keep her awake.

"...and Iruka-sensei was so mad, he told us that if we did it again he'd prevent us from graduating..."

Sasuke heard a raspy laugh from Sakura. "Naruto, please don't make me laugh." She wheezed.

"I'm SO sorry Sakura-chan... I wasn't thinking." Naruto look abashed, as he placed his free hand behind his neck.

Sasuke impatiently motioned for the blonde to remove his other hand from the wound. Fortunately it had stopped bleeding and her weak laughter hadn't started it again.

He looked quickly from the blonde to the pink-haired ninja. Should he have Naruto stay and help or go and find Kakshi?

After a moment of watching Naruto bouncing on his heels he decided to ask Sakura.

"Do you think you can stay still while I do this, so Naruto can go look for and possibly back-up Kakshi – or will you need us to hold you down?" he asked. He was grateful that his uncertainty didn't present itself in the tone of his voice. The last thing Sakura needed was to know that Sasuke did NOT want to do this.

Sakura hesitated. It was apparent that she didn't like either option. But, she wasn't the most mature of her team for nothing.

"I can stay still." She said meekly. "Kakshi might need help."

Naruto looked relieved, even as he predictably protested. "I'm sure Kakshi will be alright..."

Sasuke glared at him, and for once the blonde shut up without it escalating into a fight. "But I can go and check." He finished, casting one last worried look at their teammate. "Are you sure you'll be alright, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura gave a weak smile and nodded. "Thanks Naruto."

"You'd better be nice, you bastard." Naruto chimed as he immediately took to the trees.

After he left, an uncomfortable silence fell over the two remaining members of team seven.

Sakura, took the offered stick from Sasuke with a small word of thanks.

Saskue pulled a piece of thread and threaded the needle. Then he pinched the wound slightly to pull it closed and without a word inserted the needle through both lips of flesh.

He tried to ignore Sakuras gasp and moan of pain as she bit down hard on the stick. He pulled the string all the way through slowly, trying to remember all the times he'd been stitched up. Unfortunately he didn't know how painful this was for her, because his stitches were always administered at the hospital with a local anesthesia. But he did remember the small evenly placed stitches and thought he was managing a fairly close replication.

Still, he felt like he was forgetting something...

Halfway through, Sasuke made the mistake of looking back up to Sakura's face. She was clenching the stick in her mouth so hard, he could see teeth marks buried deep in the wood and her face was screwed up tightly with tears streaming down her face. Her hands were squeezed in tight fists and her upper body was shaking in an effort to keep herself still.

In a flash, Sasuke remembered what he was forgetting.

"Why don't you just shut up and finish patching me up already?" Sasuke growled at the talkative nurse.

She paused a moment, her face wide with confusion. "Oh – I'm sorry. I... d-didn't mean to bother you." She looked back down and began rewrapping his injury. She hesitated before adding, "They tell us that patients appreciate conversation because it takes their mind off their pain."

Sasuke regretted asking Naruto to leave. He could have kept up the stream of conversation. And now it was up to Sasuke... not exactly his forte.

As he pushed the needle though the next stitch he decided it couldn't be much worse for Sakura he could at least **try** to distract her.

"Arigato." He said as he finished pulling the string through the stitch. When he looked up he saw that he'd at least surprised her.

She was looking at him in shock, her teeth actually slack on the stick.

Before she could take the stick out of her mouth Sasuke continued. "You saved me an injury worse than this today. It was very brave of you."

Saskura's eyes danced and there was a smile behind the grimace of pain. Sasuke quickly returned his attention to the wound and pushed the needle though the next stitch.

"Although you shouldn't have put yourself at risk like that. Do you know what would happen if you were hurt worse than this?" Sasuke stopped and took a deep breath when he realized that he wasn't being very comforting. It wasn't his intent to lecture her and that's was it sounded like he was doing.

As he continued his meticulous stitches, he softened his tone.

"You're getting better all the time, you know. We all are. And soon we won't have any injuries like this to worry about." Sasuke continued quickly, seeing how talking to her actually did cause her to relax. Sakura's hands were beginning to unclench even as she maintained her vice-grip on the stick.

"You can trust us to help you." Sasuke added. "I know you think we protect you too much... but we..." Sasuke cleared his throat. This was tiring work, trying to be soothing. One glance at Sakura's face told him she was paying much more attention to him than the needle still pulling her flesh together. So that part at least was working... but attention was not quite comfort.

"We just... don't like to see you hurt. It's not that we... I... it's not that I think you can't handle yourself. But..." Sasuke was surprised when a comforting hand settled on his knee. Sakura smiled – the grin made feral by the branch.

Sasuke released a breath he didn't know he'd been holding as a warm feeling of understanding flooded him. "You see..." he told Sakura, "I can't even keep you distracted properly. You're much better at cheering people up." He confessed, hiding a smile at her confused expression.

With a swift twist of the needle he had tied the thread as well as it was going to be. A second later his kunai severed the extra thread.

As Sasuke used a clean rag to tenderly dab the little dots of blood that now ran along her wound from the needle he saw Sakura tentatively remove the branch from her mouth. Sasuke was shocked at the depth of several sets of indentions. As Sakura opened her mouth to speak they both heard the sound of people approaching from the trees.

Taking the kunai in a defensive position, Sasuke was on his feet swiftly and turned towards the intruders before they were out of the foliage.

He was relieved to see Kakshi and Naruto enter the clearing. No need for any more awkward conversation or warm unexplainable feelings.

He saw Kakshi's nod of approval at the speed he'd gotten battle-ready, and held his breath while his sensei kneeled next to Sakura to inspect her wound.

A few minutes later Kakashi had approved Sasuke's stitches for travel and presented Sakura with a blood replacement pill.

Moments after swallowing the pill, Sakura's color returned to her cheeks and she became less lethargic and more like her bouncy self.

Sasuke was glad. It never failed to amaze him how... odd he felt when Sakura was out of sorts. He shook his head as if to set free the thought as he watched Kakashi and Naruto help Sakura to stand.

After she reassured them a hundred times that she was fine, Sakura ended up walking between Naruto and Sasuke with her arms slung around each as they practically carried her back to Konoha.

Despite the constant throbbing pain in her side, Sakura found that her heart felt lighter than it had ever been.

She realized the stitches don't just help stop a wound from bleeding. They hold it together.

And even as she listened to Naruto and Sasuke's bantering, Sakura couldn't help but feel like the stitches between her and her team gotten a little tighter.

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The end. Hope you enjoyed. I don't own any of the characters of Naruto, just borrowed them for a little out-and-about time.

Any comments and constructive criticisms are welcomed.


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